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The Race Issue !

Many on the Right Wing in America are having a disingenuous conversation on race, even as polls show they would rather not have a race conversation.

I understand how they would not want to face their conscience.

After all we have a black President,what more do these Negroes want?

What I find interesting, as they point the finger at black crimes in America’s cities, they are completely oblivious to the four fingers pointing back at themselves.

Two right-wing hater merchants. Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity:

Listening to these brain-dead racists talk, you would think there are no black people in America’s jails. So for the record let me just quickly add my two cents to this debate. African Americans make up roughly 12% of the American population. Yes approximately 12 out of every 100 people in America are black. Over 50% of America’s prisoners are …..? Yes, right again, you guessed it , black. So more than half of all the people in America’s prisons are black…. So to the talking head frauds who talk about black crimes, take a look at these numbers when you talk about black crimes.

Blacks do not necessarily commit more crimes than whites. There are a plethora of issues which must be considered when we talk about black crime. 1) blacks gets prosecuted exponentially more for committing the same offense as whites. 2) when convicted blacks are likely to get longer and harsher punishment than whites who commit similar offences. There is data to show that most crimes are committed intra-racially , meaning whites commit crimes against whites, blacks commit crimes against blacks, seldom does criminals cross racial lines. Also crime and criminality are played up in black communities and downplayed in white communities to give the impression whites are not committing crimes in certain communities. Some members of the NYPD are now coming forward and speaking out about the department’s tactics on stop and frisk, fudging of numbers and underreporting of crimes committed in certain white neighborhoods . If we believe there is institutionalized racist and abhorrent practices within the NYPD, what do you think is happening in some of the smaller town Police departments all over the country? Is it any wonder so many blacks and Latinos are either locked up, or, are in some way tied up in the criminal justice system? This does not even begin to include the social and institutional built-in ills, which are intrinsically a part of the system. No, this is not an excuse, it is a fact. So lets add some context to the conversation, so we may move on to having a serious debate on what happened in Sanford Florida and all over America with black people and black men in particular.

JZ:

Now that we cleared the air on that, lets have a conversation on race in America without the distractions. I cannot let my white friends off the hook simply because their sensibilities are offended. With that said, black America must take responsibility for it’s own plight, 37 million people is a whole lot of people, when you walk around with your pants hanging off your ass, using drugs, not going to school, yet fathering children out of wed-lock with multiple women, guess what?

They take your voting rights because you don’t use it to keep them in line. They lock you away for crimes you haven’t committed, when they chose not to kill you. They talk about you as if you are inconsequential, because you actually are. When they market to you simply because you are a people who are only about consumerism . When you spend every last dime you have on cheap tacky shiny objects, making people who hate you rotten rich, making them even richer when they disrespect and debase you , telling you they never created their product for you, after you had already made them filthy rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Yes you are inconsequential when you do not start businesses, you do not support black businesses, you do not have pride of citizenship. No pride in your community, do not demand equal services for the taxes you pay. When you claim run-down neighborhoods as your own, even as they take your taxes to the suburbs and exurbs to make schools, fire police and other services better for those living there. Yes you make yourself inconsequential when you do not take care of the children you parent, leaving them to the charge of the state and a burden to those who pay taxes.(The latter not confined solely to blacks)

Black America must make a change as the late Tupac Shakur said , and that change must begin with us, we cannot demand respect when we do not do the things which elicit respect and awe. The problems plaguing black America are not new, they have been here for hundreds of years. Many argue they are going away with each generation, they say things are getting better. Are they really getting better, are the actions of the Supreme Court in gutting the 1965 voting Rights Act symptomatic of positive change? Are the state actions aimed at voter suppression representative of positive change? Are the continued expansion of the prison industrial complex and the closing of schools in black neighborhoods positive and if so positive for whom?

Some entertainers have now come forward and are letting their voices be heard, using their celebrity to bring attention to the plight of black America. Rapper Sean Carter (JZ) had this to say.

“If you ask the questions, ask yourself the questions, ‘Didn’t Trayvon have the right to stand his ground?,'” he explains. “He was being chased. He fought back. He may have won. That doesn’t mean he’s a criminal. He won. If you chase me and you try to attack me and I defend myself, how can I be in the wrong? How is that right?” This guy went to get Skittles and go back and watch the All-Star game. He had plans,” the rapper added. “He had no intentions of robbing anyone’s homes.”

I don’t know if the killing of young Trayvon Martin will awaken black America to the perilous situation it is in, time will tell.

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One thought on “The Race Issue !”

I like the balance in this piece Mike . More importantly , Black Americans must take charge of their own destiny , voting is an important mechanism of control, they should realises, if they have not already , and utilise it . Irrespective of the oppression of the past by the white establishment , they should realise that when the deck is stocked against them they need to work twice as hard as their oppressor and think out of the box to have an edge . Nothing is wrong with being critical about the status quo concerning race relations , but BA should, in the interim, learn from their social activist and inventors of the past who worked twice as hard as their counterpart ….Longfellow ‘s quote is indeed relevant here . I need say more . I am glad I am in Jamaica where our challenges are of a different complexion ,crime and corruption, at least I can walk on the road without being profiled .